1. art and entertainment
2. theatre

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
ASSANDRA WILSON is an American jazz
musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. Described by
critic Gary Giddins as “a singer blessed with
an unmistakable timbre and attack who has
expanded the playing field” by incorporating
blues, country, and folk music into her work.
Ms. Wilson began playing piano at six, guitar by age twelve, and was working as a vocalist by the mid-1970s, singing a wide variety of
material. After moving to New York City in
the early 1980s, she met saxophonist Steve
Coleman and became one of the founding
members of the M-Base Collective.
At the completion of her stint with M-Base,
Ms. Wilson sought a more acoustic context for
her vocal expression. She signed with Blue
Note Records in 1992 and released a landmark
album, Blue Light ’Til Dawn, which would pave
the way for a new generation of jazz singers
seeking an approach and repertoire that challenged the supremacy of the American
Standard songbook.
Ms. Wilson has continued interpreting in
fresh and creative ways vintage blues, country,
and folk music up to the present day. Her
awards include two Grammy Awards, the
Django d’Or, the Edison Music Award, and a
marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail. She also
performed one of the leading roles in Wynton
Marsalis’s Blood on the Fields, the first jazz
composition to receive a Pulitzer Prize.
April 2015 brings us her tribute album for
Billie Holiday’s 100th birthday, Coming Forth
C
PLAYBILL
by Day: A Tribute to Billie Holiday. An otherworldly musical homage to legendary jazz vocalist Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan on
April 7, 1915) on the 100th anniversary of the
singer’s birth, Coming Forth by Day is
Cassandra Wilson’s moody, soulful new
album showcase for contemporary yet timeless interpretations of standards associated
with Lady Day. Coming Forth by Day was produced by Nick Launay, known as Nick Cave’s
producer for the last decade among many
other adventurous credits.
Ms. Wilson has drawn inspiration from
Billie Holiday for her entire life and chose the
title as a way to honor the iconic singer:
“Coming Forth by Day” is a literal English
translation of the title of an ancient text,
commonly known as The Egyptian Book of
the Dead. The book is in actuality a Kemetic
collection of scriptures more accurately titled
The Book of Coming Forth by Day—prescriptions intended to assist both the living and
deceased in their journey through life and
the afterlife.
The album features eleven reinterpretations
of standards associated with Lady Day, plus an
original penned by Ms. Wilson—the dreamlike new “Last Song (for Lester),” imagined as
a heartbreaking final message from Billie to
her musical love, Lester Young. (Upon receiving the news that Young had passed away,
Billie flew straight from Europe to his funeral
but was denied the opportunity to sing by
Young’s family. She was distraught.)
Ms. Wilson recorded Coming Forth by Day
in Los Angeles at Seedy Underbelly studios
with an A-list musical team, including producer Launay (Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs,
Arcade Fire), guitarists T-Bone Burnett and
Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, string
arranger Van Dyke Parks, and rhythm section
of the Bad Seeds (drummer Thomas Wydler
and bassist Martyn P. Casey).
“A dream of mine is happening,” said
Ms. Wilson. “I’ve been in love with Billie
Holiday’s voice since the moment I heard it, and
she has inspired me throughout my career.”
Friday, March 6, 2015, 8pm
Zellerbach Hall
The Intergalactic Nemesis
Live-Action Graphic Novel
Book Two: Robot Planet Rising
Cal Performances’ 2014–2015 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.
CAL PERFORMANCES
CAST
Robot Planet Rising
Written by Jason Neulander and Chad Nichols
Adapted and Directed by Jason Neulander
Adapted from the radio drama by Ray Patrick Colgan, Jessica Reisman, and Jason Neulander
Based on an original characters by Ray Patrick Colgan, Lisa D’Amour,
Julia Edwards, Jessica Reisman, and Jason Neulander
Comic-Book Artwork
Color Art
Production Design
Sound Effects
Improvised Score
Sound Engineer
Company Manager
David Hutchison, based on the artwork from
Target Earth by Tim Doyle
Lee Duhig
Jason Neulander
Buzz Moran
Graham Reynolds
George R. Stumberg IV
Jessie Douglas
CAST
(in order of appearance)
Rachel Landon
Molly Sloan, Mission Control, Natasha Zorokov,
Messenger Boy, Aughy, Robot Two, Quasar,
Drunk Robot, Robot Patron, Mom, Sister, Robot
G-38, and various other robots
Brock England
Elbee Dee Oh, Svrenski, El Seven, TZ436,
Cerebretron, Alphatron, Robot One, Ben Wilcott,
Mysterion, Robot Vendor 2, Robot Bum, Robot
Bouncer, Robot Barkeep, and various other robots
Christopher Lee Gibson
Dr. Lawrence Webster, Dee Nine, Timmy Mendez,
Robot Vendor 1, Dad, and various other robots
Foley Sound Effects
Kelly Matthews
Piano and Organ
Harlan Hodges
There will be one 15-minute intermission.
Comic books, sound-effects gadgets, posters, shirts, and Zygonian Slime available in the lobby
at intermission and after the performance. The cast will sign books after the show.
This production received its world première at the Long Center for the Performing Arts
in Austin, Texas, on June 8, 2012.
PLAYBILL
PROGRAM NOTES
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INTERGALACTIC NEMESIS
N 1996, Ray Colgan approached Jason
Neulander about the idea of creating a
science-fiction radio serial to be performed
live in installments and maybe even to be aired
on the radio. Mr. Neulander jumped on the
idea. He invited Jessica Reisman, Julia
Edwards, and Lisa D’Amour to join Mr. Colgan
on the writing team, and The Intergalactic
Nemesis was born. The original conceit was
that the writers would provide two 15-minute
scripts per week for five weeks. Mr. Neulander
got these scripts on a Friday, rehearsed with
actors and sound on Saturday, and performed
the two episodes on Sunday for five weeks at
Little City coffeehouse in Austin, Texas.
Because the process was so quick, the writers
named the main characters after the actors who
played them: Ben Willcott, Molly Rice, and
Japhy Fernandez. Buzz Moran grabbed stuff
out of his kitchen to make the last-minute
sound effects. The first week, more than 100
people showed up at Little City to catch the
show, and week after week the crowds stuck it
out. Mr. Moran captured the show on a fourtrack cassette tape, and the next summer
KUT-FM aired the show in serial format on
I
their Sunday morning program Soundsight.
And that was that. Or so they thought…
In 2000, Mr. Moran bought a portable
digital recording studio and suggested to
Mr. Neulander that the Salvage Vanguard
Theater remount the show, cut it down an
evening-length format, perform it again, and
make a true broadcast-quality recording.
Again, Mr. Neulander jumped and asked
Mr. Colgan and Ms. Reisman to help him
rewrite it. On Memorial Day 2000, the crew
set up shop at the State Theatre to a capacity
crowd. The only original cast member was
Ben Willcott, so the names of the other two main
characters were changed. The performance was
received so well that Mr. Colgan and
Mr. Neulander immediately knew that the
following summer they would have to create a
sequel, which they did. Return of the Intergalactic Nemesis was performed and recorded
in June 2001, both shows were performed in rep
in 2002, and KUT aired a three-part edit of the
show on its “Best of Public Radio” series. And
that was that. Or so they thought…
In January 2009, Mr. Neulander
approached artist Tim Doyle, who had created
the backdrops for various productions, about
developing a comic-book version of the story.
As the two collaborators began work on the
comic-book, Cliff Redd asked Mr. Neulander
to bring the show into Dell Hall at the Long
Center. In that meeting, Neulander came up
with the idea of combining the comic-book
artwork with the live show. In September
2010, the Long Center premièred this new
form of entertainment to an audience of over
2,100 people. Currently, the project has
spawned two sequels and is in the midst of a
multi-year international tour, including the
Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the
New Victory in New York City, and more than
100 venues around the globe.
The adventure continues in the form of
podcasts, web series, and more at
theintergalacticnemesis.com or by following
the project on Facebook and Twitter.
To be continued…
CAL PERFORMANCES
CAST
CAST
Rachel Landon (Molly Sloan, Natasha
Zorokov, Aughy, et al.) is happy to be performing in her first season with The Intergalactic
Nemesis. She hails from Houston, Texas, and
attended the University of Evansville in
Indiana for her bachelor’s degree. Ms. Landon
has performed as an actor and singer all over
the country. You may have last seen her on
Broadway eating a jumbo soft pretzel. Some of
her favorite regional credits include Emma in
Tell Me on a Sunday, Mrs. Walker in The Who’s
Tommy, Rona in The 25th Annual Putnam
County Spelling Bee, Diana in Next to Normal,
Jean in Dead Man’s Cell Phone, and Bernie
Bernstein in Bigfoot and Other Lost Souls.
Ms. Landon is also a founding member and
Artistic Director of Standing Room Only
Productions in Houston.
Brock England (Timmy Mendez, Lawrence
Webster, et al.) is an actor, director, and
producer, and has been active in stage and
film for over 20 years. He has either
performed or assisted in a performance of just
about every major musical you can name,
toured the country with an equestrian circus,
and is an accomplished Shakespearean actor.
He has been seen in numerous short films,
and his first feature film, entitled Zero
Charisma, premièred at the South by South
West Film Festival in 2013, garnering the
audience award for Best Narrative. He was
awarded Best Lead Actor by the Austin Critic’s
Table for his performance in Hidden Room
Theater’s original practices production of Rose
Rage, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry VI
plays. He also writes and co-produces an
original web series called Clown vs Mime. In
his spare time, he enjoys running, sailing,
working on his motorcycles, and singing.
Christopher Lee Gibson (Elbee Dee Oh,
Alphatron, Cerebretron, et al.) is a 1990 graduate
of the American Musical and Dramatic
Academy. He has acted for the Loft Theatre, the
Tampa Players, American Stage Theatre, the
PLAYBILL
Off-Center Theatre, B.O.B. (theatrical
palindrome), and the Hillsborough Moving
Company, and several producing companies in
Tampa, Florida. He was producer of the
Orlando International Fringe Festival (2001–
2004) and Production Manager at Orlando’s
Mad Cow Theatre (2005). He has acted for Mad
Cow, the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, the
Austin Playhouse, ZACH Theatre, Salvage
Vanguard Theater, and Da! Theatre Collective.
Harlan Hodges (Piano and Organ) is a pianist,
composer, and producer from West Texas.
Formerly pursuing his studies at Texas Tech
University with world renowned pianist
William Westney, as well as composition and
orchestration from leading composers Peter
Fischer and Mei-Fang Lin, he was selected as
a finalist in the 2011 BMI Student Composer
Awards for his solo piano work Six Poems and
was recipient of the 2011 Cactus Pear Xtreme
Composer Award for his Piano Quintet Vision
of a Mockingbird. Producing works that reach
from big band, orchestra, and electronics, to
art installations, and rock-pop arrangements,
he has had the great honor to work and learn
alongside many of his favorite musicians, including Paul English, Wayne Bergeron, and
Donald Fagen. Now residing in Austin, he
regularly performs, writes for film and television, and is developing a new musical called
Jericho Can’t Die Yet. He is a proud owner of a
Steinway piano and is thrilled to be a part of
his first season with The Intergalactic Nemesis.
Kelly Matthews (Foley Artist) holds a B.F.A. in
acting from Texas State University. Her favorite
stage credits include The Effect of Gamma Rays
on Man in the Moon Marigolds (Tillie), Picasso
at the Lapin Agile (Germaine), Much Ado About
Nothing (Hero), What Light Through Yonder
Window Breaks (Laura), and Almost Maine
(Ginette/Sandrine/Gayle). For this show, she
won the TSU Ramsey Award for Best Actress
and an Irene Ryan Scholarship nomination.
Ms. Matthews has also studied abroad in
England with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
She has participated in the commedia dell’arte
CAST
troupe Heartfelt Tricks, playing such characters as Isabella and Smeraldina, as well as having participated in the Paramount Theatre’s
Story Wranglers and an Austin favorite:
FronteraFest. Ms. Matthews is also an acting
teacher at the ZACH Theatre Performing Arts
School in Austin.
CREATORS
Jason Neulander (Co-Author, Director,
Producer) is an internationally acclaimed
writer, director, and producer whose work
fuses multiple artistic disciplines with technology to create unique and original theatrical and literary experiences. In the 1990s,
Mr. Neulander founded the avant-garde company Salvage Vanguard Theater in Austin,
Texas, and during his 15-year run as Artistic
Director developed and directed more than 50
original experimental plays and music-theater
productions. During his tenure he was named
“Best Theatre Director” three times by the
readers of The Austin Chronicle and won numerous awards for his work. In his final years
at Salvage Vanguard Theater, he designed and
oversaw the construction of the company’s
current home, a venue with two small theaters
and a gallery for visual art. Of his work, the
Austin American-Statesman wrote: “Neulander
aims to change the world…. Unlike most of his
artistic compatriots, he is winning.”
Mr. Neulander’s current project, the independently produced transmedia sci-fi multiverse The Intergalactic Nemesis takes the form
of graphic novels, radio plays, podcasts, novels, e-books, web series, and live stage productions. The “Live-Action Graphic Novel”
Intergalactic trilogy has been booked into
more than 140 venues around the world, including runs on Broadway and sold-out performances at the Kennedy Center. It was
named “Best of Austin” in 2011 and has been
featured on PBS, NPR’s All Things Considered,
and TBS’s Conan (with Conan O’Brien as a
performer). The graphic novels are available
in print and through comiXology. The
YouTube version of the project is produced at
KLRU, PBS-Austin, with funding from PBS
Digital Studios, and can be seen at
www.youtube.com/intergalacticnemesis. He is
currently expanding the Intergalactic universe
into Salt, a noir-inspired series of novels and
podcasts featuring the enigmatic time-traveler
Jean-Pierre Desperois. Salt podcasts are available at www.oneofus.net. For more information on The Intergalactic Nemesis, including a
complete tour schedule of the live productions, visit www.theintergalacticnemesis.com.
Tim Doyle (Artwork, Target Earth) is an
illustrator and print-maker working out of
Austin, Texas. Growing up in the suburban
sprawl of the Dallas area, he turned inward
and sullen, only finding joy in comic-books
and television and video games. Moving to
Austin in 1999 to fulfill a lifelong dream of not
living in Dallas, Mr. Doyle began painting and
showing in galleries in 2001. He self-published
a diary zine, Amazing Adult Fantasy, from
2001 to 2003. He has held many nerd-friendly
jobs, including running a small chain of
comic-book stores, as well as designing
T-shirts and art-directing the poster series for
the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Mr. Doyle left
“jobs” behind and launched his company,
www.nakatomiinc.com, in January 2009. In
summer 2009, Mr. Doyle and artist Clint
Wilson built their own screen printing studio,
NakatomiPrint.com, out of which they and
other artists work. Since then, he has produced
art for such companies as ABC/Disney’s Lost
Poster project and Mattel’s He-Man art show in
Los Angeles, and has had artwork used by
Lucasfilm/ILM, Hasbro, and IDW, among
others. He has had several sold-out solo art
shows hosted by Spoke Art gallery in San
Francisco, and has exhibited in galleries all
over the world. Mr. Doyle lives and works in
Austin with his wife and two children. You can
see more of his work at www.mrdoyle.com.
David Hutchison (Artwork, Robot Planet
Rising) has worked as a graphic designer,
storyboard artist, and comic-book artist for
over 15 years. His work includes titles
CAL PERFORMANCES
PROGRAM
published through Antarctic Press, Archie
Comics, and IDW Publishing. With work on
titles ranging from licensed books like
Sonic the Hedgehog to instructional books like
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Manga,
Mr. Hutchison strives to leave a lasting impact
with every project he works on.
Buzz Moran (Sound Effects Designer) has been
performing live sound effects for The
Intergalactic Nemesis since developing sounds
for the first production in 1996. Since then he
has worked steadily as a sound designer for
countless (he has not yet counted them) theater
productions. Mr. Moran is responsible for the
sporadically performed Foleyvision shows in
Austin, Texas, wherein odd foreign films receive new music, voices, and sound effects performed live in the theater. Also in Austin,
Mr. Moran helps run The Dionysium, a
monthly show featuring lectures, drinking, and
debates. On the music side of audio, Mr. Moran
has recorded, mixed, and produced several
CDs, which are small silver disks that can play
sounds. Often working closely with Graham
Reynolds, Mr. Moran is a music editor on such
films as Bernie, starring Jack Black, and Before
Midnight, starring Ethan Hawke. You can learn
more about sound effects by watching
Mr. Moran’s PBS web series, What’s That,
Buzz?, available on the internet’s YouTube.
Chad Nichols (Co-Author) received his M.F.A.
in screenwriting and fiction from the Michener
Center for Writers at the University of Texas.
Mr. Nichols has collaborated with Jason
Neulander and Ray Colgan through many
stages of The Intergalactic Nemesis
project, contributing to all three parts of the
trilogy. Known for introducing such crowdpleasing
characters
as
Heinrich
Heinemuellerschlossenschlagermeisterschloss
and Sujeet Ranamaharavna, he hopes to bring
the same level of nominal absurdity to his
screenplays. Mr. Nichols sings for the Texasnoir band the Transgressors and plays guitar
with both the Damn Times and T. Tex Edwards
and the Texwardians. He also speaks in funny
PLAYBILL
voices for the trash-film celebrating Foleyvision
troupe, and his deadpan delivery caused Austin
Chronicle critic Wayne Alan Brenner to dub
him the “Charles Grodin of Austin.”
Called “the quintessential modern composer”
by The Independent (London), Austin, Texasbased
composer-bandleader
Graham
Reynolds (Composer) creates, performs, and
records music for film, theater, dance, rock
clubs, and concert halls with collaborators
ranging from Richard Linklater and Jack
Black to DJ Spooky and Ballet Austin. Heard
throughout the world in films, on TV, on
stage, and on radio, from HBO to Showtime,
the Cannes Film Festival to Lincoln Center,
and BBC to NPR, he recently scored Before
Midnight with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy,
as well as Bernie featuring Jack Black. With the
jazz-based but far reaching Golden Arm Trio,
Mr. Reynolds has repeatedly toured the country and released four critically acclaimed albums. As Co-Artistic Director of Golden
Hornet Project with Peter Stopschinski, he has
produced more than 50 concerts of worldpremière alt-classical music by more than 60
composers. The Intergalactic Nemesis is one of
his many collaborations with writer-director
Jason Neulander. Visit grahamreynolds.com.
CREW
This year will be Jessie Douglas (Company
Manager)’s fourth season on the road with
The Intergalactic Nemesis. She spent summer
2012 as the Assistant Stage Manager on
ZACH Theatre’s production of One Night with
Janis. Her ZACH credits include Rehearsal
Assistant Stage Manager for Hairspray,
Assistant Stage Manager for August: Osage
County, Assistant Stage Manager and member
of the ensemble for Rent, Assistant Stage
Manager for Our Town, and running crew for
The Grapes of Wrath. Her other credits include
Stage Manager for Barefoot in the Park at
Unity Theater in Brenham, Texas, and Proof,
produced by Thunder Mountain Theater
Project in Juneau, Alaska. Ms. Douglas spent
PROGRAM
a year in Juneau working for Perseverance
Theatre as the Company/Stage Management
Fellow. She is a graduate of Texas State
University, San Marcos, where she earned her
B.A. in theater with a business minor.
McCartney, and David Crosby and Graham
Nash. He returns to The Intergalactic Nemesis
as a lifelong comic-book and science-fiction
fan. He is a sixth generation Texan and a fulltime Jedi.
George “Jedi” Stumberg IV (Technical
Director, Front-of-House Audio) is returning for
his second year of helping to rid the Universe of
Zygonians. He began his career in audio in
2005 as the first graduate of MediaTech
Institute in Austin. Since then, he has worked
with over 2,000 bands. He worked for several
years at SXSW; a ten-day music-film-fashion
festival in Austin, Texas, for brands like the
Roxy, the Viper Room, and CNN/PRG. He
has also worked at Bass Concert Hall in
Austin as Audio Department Head and
Soundboard Op for the nation’s largest
touring Broadway Across America shows,
including South Pacific, In the Heights, and
West Side Story. Mr. Stumberg has enjoyed
working with such comedians as Jerry
Seinfeld, Chelsea Handler, Daniel Tosh, and
Mike Epps. Some of the musicians he has
worked with in various capacities are
Widespread Panic, A Great Big World, Neil
Young, Levon Helm, Yo-Yo Ma, Sir Paul
Special thanks to Cliff Redd, Derek Rosenstrauch, Mical
Trejo, Shana Merlin, Molly Rice, Japhy Fernandez, (The
Real) Ben Willcott, John Weiss, Tony Nozaro, Lindsay
Doleshal, Corey Gagne, Dan Dietz, David Sangalli, Ben
Anderson, John DeFore, Rachel Koper, Laura Phelan, Peter
Stopschinski, Lee Eddy, Brent Werzner, Shannon
McCormick, Mike D’Alonzo, David Higgins, LB Deyo, Jon
Watson, Diana Duecker, Derek Menningen, Cynthia
Patterson, Charles Leslie, Pebbles Wadsworth, Conrad
Haden, Texas Performing Arts, Christine Tschida, Rena
Shagan, Seth Goldstein, The Splinter Group, Bill
Hofstetter/Agency 212, Mammoth Advertising (NYC), Rob
Nuell, Maria Quinn, Pam Lubell, Leanne Schanzer, Jeff
Croiter, Jonathan Herzog, Jeremy Lee, Robert Fried, Neil
Patel, Bridget Klapinski, Carter Jackson, Robert Faires, The
Austin Chronicle, KUT-FM, Ratgirl, Cliff and Cynthia
Chapman, Adam Russell, Lars Nilson, Henri Mazza, Tim
and Karrie League, the managers and staff of Alamo
Drafthouse Cinemas, The HighBall, Fantastic Fest,
STAPLE!, Chris Nicholas, Rebecca Campbell, Dragon’s
Lair, Tribe Comics, Austin Books & Comics, Amy’s Ice
Creams, House Pizzeria, Donna Taylor, Little City Espresso
Bar & Cafe, Book People, Paul, Mark, Shaady, Kyle, Eric,
Jim, and the rest of the staff at the Long Center for the
Performing Arts, Sarah André, and the thousands of people
who have seen and loved the show since its inception back
in 1996.
CAL PERFORMANCES